The Life of the Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Kathir - Volume 1 of 4

66 THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD
Ibn Ishaq stated that this account was heard only from Khuzii'a. He said that
others claim that he sought the assistance of his maternal brothers, their leader
being Riz* b. Rabi'a, and of the nibes of =nZna and @dZ% and of some men
in the Mecca region from Quraysh and others. And so he ousted them (Khuza'a)
from the House of God and he himself assumed control over it.
This all occurred because the prerogative of the pilgrims' ijzzaz9 was held by
the Siifa. They were the tribe of al-Ghawth b. Murr h. Udd b. Tiihikha b. Ilyiis
b. Mudar. People did not throw their stones (Jiimzr) until they (the Snfa) had
done so, nor did they leave Mina before the Siifa did; these prerogatives
remained theirs until they died out.
Then Bann Sa'd b. Zayd Manat b. Tamim inherited these rights from them
by kinship. The first of them was SafwZn b. al-H*th b. Shijna b. W~rid b.
'Awf h. Ka'b. b. Sa'd h. Zayd Manat b. Tamim. This power resided in his
people until the rise of Islam in the time of the last of them, who was Karib b.
Safwan.
The ijrza, the descent from al-Muzdalifa?O was the prerogative of 'Adwm
until the coming of Islam in the time of the last of them, who was Abii Sayyzra
'Amila b. al-A'zal. His name was said to have been al-'AS, while al-A'zal's name
was Khdid. He used to give people the permission while seated on a one-eyed
ass he had, for 40 years moving forth on it at that station. He was the first person
to establish the bloodwit at 100 camels, as well as the first to say the phrase, L'Mt.
Thabir shines so that we may ride forth."
That is what al-Subayli related.
And there was 'Amir b. al-&rib al-'Adwmi. In the case of all conflicts arising
among the Arabs, they would come to hi
for adjudication and accept whatever
he decided. On one occasion they asked him to resolve the matter of inheritance
to a hermaphrodite. He lay awake all night reflecting on how to adjudicate this
and when a slave-girl of his, Sukhayla by name, who used to pasture his sheep,
saw him thus, she enquired of hi, "What is wrong with you, poor thing, that
you spend the night awake?" So he told her, in case she might be of help. And
she replied, L'Judge by where from urination comes." He commented,
"Sukhayla, you've shown the way well, by God." And that was how he did
decide.
Al-Suhayli pointed out that reaching a decision by such logic constituted use
of al-istidlzl bi al-amarzt ma al-'alzmat, "inference from signs and indications", a
method with a basis in the law. God stated in the Qur'w: "And they brought his
shirt with false blood upon it" (siirat YauL XII, v.18) since it bore no signs of a
wolfs fangs. God also stated, "If his shirt has been torn from the front, she has
29. The giving of permission to the pilgrims to descend from Mt. 'Arafst.
30. A station midway between Minz and 'Arafat where pilgrims spend the night of 9th Dhii
21-Bijja on their return journey from 'Arafat.